Anyone bought a Crews/Momose

kswilson89

I'm considering buying a Japanese made tele-style guitar and was thinking of going with one of these brands as they really look like top quality instruments. Has anyone bought and imported a guitar from either of these builders or any other high end Japanese builder? And if so, how did you go about it? I can't seem to find any dealers here in the UK specifically for these 2 brands. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

historyisjunk

I have a high end BACCHUS which are made by the same company as Momose, not sure if Momose are even more high end, but there are some much cheaper Bacchus models.

Can't fault it, beautifully made & sounds great (Yuta pickups, don't believe blanket statements about Japanese pickups being crap)

Personally, I'd look for used ones from Japan as a first option. There is also a guy in France who sells better quality 2nd hand Japanese stuff, sorry can't remember the business name. I'm sure I saw him with a Crews LesPaul.

Also Gas Station Guitars might be worth a look, or maybe getting in touch with (their prices are thought to be high, but they obviously include VAT & import costs, plus you can send stuff back more easily within the UK)

Worth looking at Grecos & Navigators too  (I think)

hope that's some help

Jackobean

The only dealer within Europe I'm aware of - https://japanguitar-handmade.com/fr/

Believe historyisjunk refers to 'Japanguitars', trading on Reverb among other places. Whilst he usually has a few nice used examples, I've always thought his prices were a bit punchy,

brooom

I'm had two high end Crews guitars. A Crews LED 1959 and a Crews select KTR. They were easily as good and to be honest better than many of the Gibson historics I've owned over the years.

The LED was full honduran mahogany and the select was chambered honduran mahogany. I currently have a chambered Gibson historic R8 and whilst it is a great guitar I regret selling the Crews KTR (Gas attack) as I preferred it to the Gibson.

I'm sure their teles are just as good but you have many models. They are all very good, byt the vintage line ones are the highest spec and super expensive.

The consensus on Crews vs Momose is that in general both makes are quite nice, but most seem to slightly prefer the Crews.

Here are both of the ones I had:



By the way @historyisjunk is right when he says that Navigator and Grecos (if you choose the right ones) are also great. There's other really high end brands... like G'seven or Fullertone and many other very very expensive, high end japanese brands. All great really. They have an awesome market.

Japanguitars, has some examples, but you're substantially better off buying directly from japan, both in price and choice. Either Digimart or go to the japanese yahoo auctions and use a proxy. You'll take the hit of shipping and customs, but most time it's worth it, I've done it more than I care to admit.

Loobs

They look sick! 

tekbow

The Guitar Den can order Momose in I believe, given they're a Deviser dealer.

Word is there's not much action at deviser just now what with covid-19.

Pretty sure they have Bacchus Handmade in stock though, which are top notch.

historyisjunk

@Jackobean ; thanks, that's the place I meant.

They have two pretty good looking Tele's at present

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/Page 3 Fender JV.html

Don't discount the Fender, it's not your run of the mill & the ESP I would guess is pretty much a Navigator, but it says ESP on it

I have absolutely NO connection with these guitars, or the dealer incidentally!  I have bought from them once, PM by all means.

As @broom says you'll get a bigger choice direct from Japan, especially if you're OK with used.

Edited, read Jackobean's post incorrectly

sergio

Duplicated

sergio

Duplicated

sergio

I was recently in Japan and spent quite a bit of time at guitar shops. I was quite impressed with the quality of a number of japanese brands, for Telecaster style guitars I found examples I liked from Momose and Navigator but I was particularly enamoured with this Crews in Tokyo (which is now unfortunately sold): https://www.musicland.co.jp/fs/musiclandkey/gd35055 . It was light and resonant, with a great feeling neck and the best fretwork I've seen. It compared positively against the CS Fenders I test run on the same day, at a much more attractive price. Just looking at the picture makes me regret not buying it...

As I understand, the KTR series from Crews are exclusive releases for Musicland, a japanese music chain. It was created with the intention of bringing vintage specs instruments into the market at a more competitive price point than other competing high end brands. The highest spec'ced guitars in the range also have pickups by K&T pickups which come from the guy that created the DryZ pickups from the 80s Grecos.

If you want to buy from Japan, apart from the proxy method that brooom mentions above you can also reach out to the actuall shops. I've never had much luck finding english speaking service in the Musicland shop's I've visited, but Ishibashi is a large chain that sells online that used to have english speaking customer support. There is also an aggregator site called j-guitar that shows guitars available at many different shops across the country, but that one is in japanese and most shops will struggle with communicating in english.

One last thing, if you go to ebay you will probably see the same guitar being advertised many times by different sellers and at different prices. These are usually not the actual guitar seller, the way they work is once you place the order they go to the shop where the guitar actually is, buy it, send it to you, and pocket the difference. If you check j-guitar sometimes you can find the same guitar at the actual shop price.

sergio

Duplicated

Rebar

There's a European seller with a Facebook page with some really fine looking instruments. You could have a look at what they have: https://www.facebook.com/pg/japanguitarhand/posts/?ref=page_internal

6StringStrummer

I have a few Momose guitars, all excellent quality way better than some Gibson Customs

breezytele

I own both Momose and Bacchus guitars. (Lefties)

Momose, have a pure vintage spec line with ‘correct’ headstocks,

and another line (with their own headstock design) where they make subtle ergonomic improvements on original designs (eg a less bulky heel,  as on my strat).

I think that there is a Momose factory tour video on YouTube 

The finish is flawless. They all came with jescar 6105 fret wire as standard
 . They still use thin poly finish (& although they have  nitro top coat ;  this is their one drawback I think)

I’ve bought directly from Momose . You can specify what you want (eg nitro finish) . 

Communication was entirely by email. 

mtn

I have multiple Crews and Momoses, as well as Tokai’s, Bacchus Classic Series, etc. 

To me, Crews, Momose, and high-end Tokai’s are the creme de la creme of modern Les Paul builds, and compare extremely favorably to Gibson Historic Custom Shops.   I almost always replace stock electronics and pickups with boutique counterparts, so I’m the wrong person to comment on that, but the wood and craftsmanship are incredible.   As to which is best, it’s 6 on one hand, half dozen on the other- I oscillate between which is best on an hourly basis.   Crews and Tokai seem to have more variety in terms of price points and models, and seem to be easier to come across than Momose.   But the two Momose guitars I own were well worth the hunt.   

Here’s one Momose in a pickup demo I made of the Sigil Black Magic (Peter Green style) PAF clone set:

https://youtu.be/XSUtWjse2vM

Meanwhile, here are three Crews with Monty’s, Doyle Coils, and Sigil Snakebite pickups respectively:

https://youtu.be/h94S_hQYU3Y

https://youtu.be/J6VbxldEiDo

https://youtu.be/lfNvr2X5cb0

And finally, here’s a high end Tokai with another set of Sigil’s:

https://youtu.be/06g7tYHQQQc

These are all stellar instruments.

Whitecat

I had a Magneto guitar at one point which is built in the same Deviser workshop as the Momose stuff. It was top shelf in just about every objective measure possible. I’ve had my eye on some Momose S-types and offsets too over the past year or so - perhaps there is one in my future.

designerseye88

Used to have a Bacchus which went to @historyisjunk . Lovely guitar. Finish and play ability every bit as good as Gibson customer shop. I've currently settled on a Greco super real egf 1200 and it just a great guitar to play and get's me as close as i can to a late 50's Gibson without paying serious money. For me Japanese are the way to go.

PhilKing

I have a Deviser/Tune Shelltop Zemaitis replica from the 90's.  It's a great guitar to play and looks excellent too. 


I did change the pickups and knobs but other than that, it's as it came (I still have the original pickups, which are also blacktops).  These are a custom Bare Knuckle set with a Stormy Monday neck and an A5 Mule bridge.